Making Change Attractive

The Change Leader

Do you recall that leader that tapped into your motive to reach better goals? The leader that inspired you to maximize your potential. This leader created connections and increased trust by being predictable and reliable; you considered this leader a social architect because of his/her ability to communicate a direction that heralds a new group and philosophy. This leader had a unique way of changing your perspective about routine duties, increasing job satisfaction, and stimulating creativity. This leader was optimistic about the future and fostered collaboration among the staff. If you answered in the affirmative, chances are you had a transformational leader; a transformational leader can get extraordinary things accomplished. To effectuate organizational change, you need to be a transformational leader; let me share seven reasons why this is important.

1. The Process of Organizational Change

Organizational Change has content and a process; the object of focus is the process of change focused on how the change is planned, launched, more fully implemented, and sustained. The process requires participative leadership, involves members in the activities that bring change and recognizes accomplishments.

2. The Importance of Organizational Culture

Organizational culture is a significant factor to consider during organizational change. The leader must understand their embedded culture to assess the internal stakeholder’s culture and subculture objectively. The occupational culture of the organization that evolves from the shared beliefs, values, and norms creates the content of a given culture. This can be an operational culture built around production and teamwork; it can be a design culture focused on building better and replacing human errors with artificial intelligence or executive culture responsible for keeping the organization financially buoyant. These three subcultures must be aligned and collaborated; the leader must develop relationships with each part of the system, which expedites the ability to mediate in a meaningful manner. Understanding the cultural profile of the organization does help in executing the change in an approach that is consistent, coherent, and consensual.

3. A role model of sorts

Transformational leaders model the way by understanding one’s values and philosophy, exhibiting exemplary behaviors, following through on promises and commitment, affirming the traditional value they share with others, exhibiting personal diligence, demonstrating confidence, and communicating consistent standards. They are self-aware and build upon their strengths.

4. Makes a vision come alive

Transformational leaders are compelling and able to communicate the positive future they visualize to their followers. They also can bring the dreams of others to life by showing them how their plan can be actualized. They challenge followers to go beyond the status quo and be relevant. This motivates a shared vision between the leader and the follower, propelling the followers to aim for extraordinary opportunities.

5. Anti-Status Quo

Innovation, growth, and improvement are the motivating goals of a transformational leader. They enjoy pioneering and risk-taking to make things better. The loss of familiar routines accompanies organizational change and may attract resistance. During times of uncertainty, organizations need a leader willing to use a negative outcome as a learning opportunity and not a reason to blame or lose momentum.

6. Empowers followers

Creating a trusting environment promotes collaboration; effective change processes involve constant dialogue and cooperation among stakeholders. Transformational leaders value teamwork and corporation; they can listen actively and engage all at the table by treating others with dignity and respect. This environment empowers the followers because they are supported and know they contribute to the broader vision and the community.

7. Rewards accomplishments

An authentic celebration of small wins shows team members' or followers' appreciation and encouragement. This is certainly within the ethical guidelines of the organization. This is an important factor and is appreciated by followers. When leaders make this a priority, everyone subsequently engages in celebrating others.

In 2013, I spearheaded a workgroup responsible for introducing a Virtual Integrated Project, a department-wide business model that was 100% paperless. Amidst the multiple pieces of training and coaching, one of the interactions that had the most significant impact was when a clerical staff with many years of service realized that by using the tips I shared with her, she could send an email and an encrypted Excel file at specific times to deliver information on paper applications once they had been scanned. Whenever follow-up was required, all parties had access to the email thread. This saved her time, was error-proof, and was independent of the recipient’s availability. She had many years of service and much influence and became the most prominent advocate of the process because she understood the benefits of the change proposed personally. It was no longer an imposed change but a needed change, reducing the resistance. The efficiency was a win-win for all. The vision of the change must speak to every stakeholder to gain buy-in.

A transformational leader who is self-aware of their tolerance for ambiguity, desire to control, ability to manage personal emotions, and level of decisiveness is essential in successful change management. Transformational leaders understand the change process, pay attention to the culture, empower followers, take risks, articulate the change in visual terms, and make sure the benefactors of the change see themselves in the picture. Start practicing transformational skills today If you desire to facilitate organizational change or seek a change leader invested in transformation.

About the Author

Dr. Chima Nathan is the Chief Executive Officer and founder of Nathan Strategic Consultants (NSC). NSC is a professional consultant team located in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) corridor. NSC assists organizations with innovation, organizational culture assessments, change management, strategy, strategic foresight, data, and analytics, retention of human capital, and collaboration through dialogues and recommendations for execution. Dr. Nathan is also a public speaker who leaves her audience empowered to take action. NSC©2022.